Belgium taken to court for emergency authorisation of toxic pesticides

19 June 2026

PAN Europe and Nature et Progrès Belgium have taken the Belgian state to court for the decision to grant a temporary derogation on the ban of toxic pesticide Spirotetramat. Spirotetramat has been found to have endocrine-disrupting properties and cannot be used in the EU since 2025.

In 2017, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conducted an assessment in the framework of a previous authorisation, concluding that the data provided by Bayer were insufficient to renew the authorization. Patent owner Bayer did not challenge the decision. allowing the authorization to expire. PAN Europe believes that this is a tactical movement and argues that the emergency derogation granted by Belgium is not in line with EU law.

According to PAN Europe and Nature et Progrès Belgium, EU law establishes that member states are not allowed to provide derogations to pesticides already discarded for health or environmental reasons, even if they are not officially banned in name.

They therefore argue that, if a pesticide is not renewed because it is unsafe, it should be treated in the same way as a banned one.